Sure, I'm game.
Build-Up Play
Speed: 70 (Fast, to encourage movement from teammates)
Pass Distance: 20 (Short, more options for ground passes and 1-2s)
Positioning: Organized (Seems to work better for me than Free Form)
Chance Creation
Passing: 70 (Risky, again, encourages more movement in the attacking area)
Crossing: 40 (Normal, still tinkering with this and shooting setting)
Shooting: 70 (Lots, I like having teammates short for shot layoffs)
Positioning: Organized (Again, gives me more the movement I'm looking for)
Defense
Pressure: 100 (High, this causes man marking high and wide up the pitch)
Aggression: 1 (Contain, no teammates diving in, they play for interceptions and man mark)
Team Width: 100 (Wide, keep defensive shape, man mark on far side)
Defensive Line: Offside Trap (Works well, better man marking on far side of pitch)
Formation (Optional): A slightly modified 4-3-3 (False 9) formation. I pushed all the defenders a few "clicks" up the pitch as well as edged the fullbacks outside a bit. I dropped the CF back a few "clicks" and narrowed the wingers. No positional arrows. And I leave the work-rates on player default just to encourage individual player work-rates to show.
Gameplan:
Okay, so I almost exclusively play career mode against the AI on legendary and in that context these tactics work very well. And I don't play with a bunch of superstars, my current starting 11 is: GK: Gazzaniga, RB: Trippier, RCB: Wynne, LCB: L.Wallace, LB: Gatt, CDM: Dier, RCM: Mackay-Steven, LCM: Donovan, RW: J****ssell, CF: Sigurdson, LW: J.Williams.... not exactly a bunch of superstars (although pretty speedy)... and after dominating the Championship I'm now undefeated in the Premier League through December of my first top flight season. I wanted to play a high line, so I chose speed over ability and size in defense to protect against balls over the top (although my defenders off the bench that are slower, but better with size and positioning do just fine).
Defense:
Anyways, the purpose was to create a formation that best mimics the high pressing the AI does in the last 10 minutes of games when the AI is down a goal or two. After a lot of tinkering with the custom defensive tactics, I settled on the settings above of
100/1/100.
Pressure at 100 allows me to press the AI very high up the pitch with my entire team. I fiddled quite a bit with the
Aggression setting and eventually discovered that setting it to
1 (seemingly counter to what I was trying to achieve) fixed a lot of the problems I was having with my defensive press. Do you ever have problems with AI teammates doing that stupid "stick the leg out animation" after passes they can't intercept? Well,
setting aggression to 1 eliminates that. This is also tremendously helpful when defending your own penalty area as AI teammates can actually block shots while you can double with your user controlled player. And finally setting
Width to 100 ensures that my team stays in formation positionally and once again, the off ball AI defenders stay tight to their man.
EDIT: Also, as defense relates to real life, many high pressing teams now teach players to rarely/never attempt to tackle opponent dribbling players, but instead try to contain/pressure those players to make bad passes or take long dribble touches and rely on teammates to intercept. Since missing a tackle in FIFA (as in real life) can be disastrous, I try to avoid pressing either tackle button unless I have my opponent clearly boxed in. Either I harass the opponent with player controlled pressure, or I hold the teammate pressure button as I try to position my player in position to intercept.
Now, for those who want to give this a try, keep in mind that for any tactic to be successfully it has to be played "correctly"... or at least in the spirit it was intended.
The pressing only works really well if you are the sort of player that has a lot of offensive possession in the attacking half the field so that if/when you turn the ball over you have all your players already up field to press immediately. This really prevents your opponent from short passing out of the back and forces the early long ball... something you can hopefully recover quickly.
Offense:
Scoring goals has not typically been an issue for me as a long time FIFA player. I've consistently played a 4-3-3 type offense with overlapping fullbacks delivering crosses and fast wingers cutting inside for shots or layoffs to teammates. I slowly work the ball around the back 4 until I can deliver the ball into the central midfielders who can start 1-2 passes, through balls to wingers, or create space off the dribble. Speed on the outside is what I value most, and ball control, dribbling, and short passing is what I value in the center. I watch a lot of replays of potential scoring moves that break down and it's usually due to me making a bad decision between passing or shooting. (Sometimes you've gotta shoot early, sometimes you've gotta make that extra pass.) In order to not get destroyed on the counter attack, I make sure that my CDM stays back and central. He is always to be an outlet to swing the ball around the midfield. The 2 CBs also stay back leaving 3 players near the midfield line to guard against the counter attack. The FBs will get forward allowing me to attack with 7 players when in full possession. This will typically force the AI team to drop deep as well so you should still have enough (3) players back to prevent a quick counter.
Anyways, I don't post a lot, but I've spent waaay too much time in career modes over the last several FIFA's and this is a bit of the knowledge I've cobbled together over the years. Here are a few more sites I've come across that help me scout players and form tactics:
http://www.ea.com/uk/news/the-backpa...tributes-guide
http://fifaaddiction.com/tutorials/tactics/
10-19-2012, 10:14 AM
